Polyaniline Enriched Flexible Carbon Nanofibers with Core–Shell Structure for High-Performance Wearable Supercapacitors

High performance lightweight and flexible supercapacitors with superior electrochemical performance are in extremely high demand for wearable electronic device applications. Herein, a novel synthesis process is reported for developing highly flexible supercapacitor electrodes from carbon black doped carbon nanofiber/polyaniline core–shell nanofibers via electrospinning followed by carbonization and electrospray techniques. Resultant supercapacitor electrodes offer exceptional specific capacitance (SC) of 501.6 F g⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹, excellent capacitance retention of 91% even after 5000 cycles, demonstrating a long and stable life of the fabricated device. Moreover, solid state supercapacitor shows no obvious change in SC when subjected to various bending angles up to 180°. This simple three step (i.e., electrospinning, carbonization, and electrospray) fabrication technique paves new insights into the development of lightweight flexible supercapacitors.